BEYOND THE BATON
WHAT EVERY
CONDUCTOR NEEDS TO KNOW

Diane Wittry

p/b

Pedants may insist Beyond the Baton is not
what every conductor
needs to know, because real talent will have no
need for a manual
on how to make your way as a maestro. But let’s
face it, the majority
of conducting talent worldwide isn’t in the
superstar category. And
for anyone wanting to get their head round what
may be involved
in creating, developing and maintaining a career
– as opposed to
a ﬁtful succession of dates – this could hardly
be a better guide.
Indeed, initial wonderings as to why OUP should
have published a
‘mere’ how-to handbook were swept aside in the
sheer scope of
what Diane Wittry (music director of two less
familiar US orchestras)
provides.

Too many musicians still enter the profession
with only the
woolliest idea of how far they need to manage
their careers – and
this is a terriﬁc roadmap for those with eyes to
see. Immediately, for
example, the role of that fundamental attribute –
persistence – is
underlined. And yet this is not just a guide to
such mainline stuff
as musical training, ‘being organised’,
negotiating contracts and
planning repertoire for different contexts.
There’s advice in such
areas as how to handle orchestra board members
(‘it is good to
attend as many board meetings as possible’) and
the thoroughly
modern awareness conductors must have of their
part in raising the
funds that keep orchestras going.

As useful as anything is the guide to
‘resources’, which occupies
a third of the book’s total length – a one-stop
directory to all
manner of information about artist managers,
competitions, music
publishers and collections, grants, festivals and
so on. There are
even specimen guest conducting contracts to pore
over. And there’s
an intriguing guide to repertoire planning in
themes.

Digest this and at least you can’t say you were
never warned
about the challenges ahead.